Practical Magic 2 commits an unforgivable sin against Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock

Review: As a die-hard fan of Practical Magic, I was apprehensive when a sequel to the iconic 1998 film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman was announced more than 20 years after the fact.

Now I’ve seen Practical Magic 2, I can say with utter confidence that I was right to be concerned; the sequel is an utter mess, and I wish Bullock and Kidman had never reprised the roles that made me love them so much.

I know some people will enjoy the film for its lightheartedness and nostalgia-factor, but I spent at least half of the two-hour-and-10-minute runtime wishing it would end.

Not only does Practical Magic 2 lack the heart, tenderness and charm of the original, it also commits the unforgivable sin of turning Kidman’s once sexy, cunning, but golden-hearted Gillian Owens into a bumbling sidekick.

But more on that shortly.

Practical Magic 2 kicks off by ret-conning the ending of the original film, which had Bullock’s Sally Owens learning to embrace her magic to save her sister after years of repressing it in the hopes of living an ‘ordinary’ life.

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She gets the guy – Investigator Gary Hallet, played by Aidan Quinn – ushers her two daughters into a world of wonder and witchcraft, and it’s hinted that the family curse which kills any man who loves an Owens woman has ended.

All in all, a beautiful ending. So you can imagine my surprise when it’s all undone in the first five minutes of the new movie.

Hallet is killed off-screen a few years after the events of the first film, proving the curse is still around. (Quinn was not invited to return for the sequel.)

Heartbroken, Sally casts a spell to make her daughters forget magic and, once again, rejects her witchy nature to chase an ordinary life. Sound familiar?

In the first five minutes of the sequel, almost all of Sally’s character growth is undone so we can essentially do the same arc over again.

Skip forward to the present, Sally’s single, running a library (what happened to her botanicals shop? No clue), and still living with her aunts Bridget ‘Jet’ Owens (Dianne Wiest) and Frances ‘Franny’ Owens (Stockard Channing).

She’s also constantly calling her distant daughters; aspiring neurosurgeon Antonia (Maisie Williams), and English literature student Kylie (Joey King), who seems to still be at university despite being the elder sister.

The plot revolves around Kylie running away to find a cure for the family curse, while Sally and Gillian race to save her from evil forces.

It’s convoluted and involves, in no particular order: a trip to London, a magical MacGuffin, unconvincing CGI, and two grown adults flirting over custard.

Don’t get me wrong, there were some bright spots in the film.

The costume design is gorgeous, the sets are stunning, and it’s obvious that the artists and craftspeople who worked on Practical Magic 2 put so much love into it.

There are a few good needle drops (though nothing as perfect as This Kiss by Faith Hill in the original) and Bullock and Kidman are a delight every time they share the screen.

It’s so obvious these two women adore each other, and their sisterly antics feel so genuine it’s easy to forget they’re not actually related, but their beautiful portrayal of the Owens sisters’ bond is wasted on this sequel.

Kidman’s Gillian also feels less complex now than she did in the original, and lacks the agency that made her so compelling the first time around.

Instead of the witch who ran away to see the world with a rucksack and a blood oath, the sequel makes her a running joke about women packing too much for a short trip. Kidman and Gillian definitely deserved better.

King gives a solid performance as Kylie, but the script forces her to make stupid choices like going to a strange man’s house alone in the middle of the woods.

Meanwhile, Williams is terribly underutilised as Antonia and her bond with Kylie is underwhelming because they spend most of the film apart.

I would have struggled to love this film even if it had nothing to do with the original Practical Magic, but the fact that this is supposed to be the successor to one of my favourite ’90s movies makes it so much harder.

The sequel tries to hit all the same emotional beats, but they lack the conviction and care of the original.

I don’t care about Sally rejecting her magic because I know she’ll accept it again.

I don’t care about someone she loves being in peril because I know she’ll save them.

I don’t care about her trying to hold back from her budding romance with Professor Ian Wright, played by a deliciously tattooed Lee Pace, because I know they’ll get together in the end.

Practical Magic 2 feels like the millennial grey carpet house-flippers lay over beautiful hardwood floors; it looks fine from a distance, but up close it’s just a poorer version of what was already there.

The worst part is that the sequel, despite trying to hit all the same emotional beats, seems to have completely forgotten what made the original so beloved.

Practical Magic wasn’t a film about travelling the world to uncover ancient lore and fight evil; it was about small acts of magic and the power of sisterhood.

Ask anyone what their favourite scene from the original is, and they’re not going to say the CGI bad guy or dramatic possession scene.

They’re going to say the moment when Gillian returns to Sally in her darkest hour and cuddles up under the blankets to giggle with her like a little girl, or the moment Sally lies on the floor with a tortured Gillian and refuses to let her die.

The bond between the Owens sisters is what made Practical Magic so magical for a generation of women – and, admittedly, it’s the best part of the sequel – but it gets lost in the messy plot and unnecessary expansion of the film’s world and lore.

I didn’t expect to love Practical Magic 2.

After years of lacklustre reboots, sequels, prequels and spin-offs put out by studios trying to mine beloved IP for every last dollar, I’ve gotten used to being disappointed when my favourite characters return to screens.

But a part of me – the part that still believes in magic – had hoped this film would be the exception to the curse of sequels released 20 years too late.

I still wish it had been.